Ralston, Esther

Peter Pan

J.M. Barrie's play about the boy who refused to grow up has become a stage classic and a revival standard, but in the movies Disney's animated musical version remains the most famous incarnation. Nearly forgotten is the original 1924 live-action version, a lavish silent fantasy that captures the fairy tale magic of flying children, wicked pirates, and a wondrous storybook land where kids never grow up. Tomboyish Betty Bronson, with an innocent smile and a mischievous spontaneity, is the eternally adolescent boy while towering Ernest Torrence (the burly comic actor best known as Buster Keaton's gruff father in Steamboat Bill Jr.) plays a gleefully flamboyant Captain Hook. This faithful adaptation flies from the Darling nursery to the thick tangle of the Lost Boys' forest, where elaborate, cartoonishly exaggerated animal costumes wander the trails and a floating ball of fairy light reveals herself as a lovely, petite girl in a gossamer gown and glowing hair. A curious thread of American patriotism peaks in the pirate ship climax when the Lost Boys replace the Jolly Roger with the stars and stripes and fly the ship into the stars. Long thought lost, a beautiful 35mm print was recovered years ago and serves as the basis for this restoration. Anna May Wong costars as Princess Tiger Lily, and a fine new score by Philip C. Carli accompanies the film.

The DVD also features a 30-minute interview with costar Esther Ralston, an essay by film historian Frederick C. Szebin, and a treasure-trove of archival stills and promotion materials in a photo gallery. --Sean Axmaker

The Kid [Remastered] 1921

'The Kid' is a powerfully emotive and wonderfully hilarious motion picture and a tremendous breakthrough in Charlie Chaplin's oeuvre. Chaplin hadn't filled a film so fully with pathos since 'The Vagabond' (1916), and then it was in a very limited way, subject to the confines of two-reel length. Additionally, 'Sunnyside' (1919) was a failure. The feature length of 'The Kid' also allows Chaplin to elaborate and refine the gags, pranks and set pieces, and with the support of Jackie Coogan, it's one of his funniest comedies. The parent-child relationship has proved potential as sentimental entertainment, and, for me, not many have neared Chaplin in exploiting that formula in 'The Kid.' The sequence where they take the kid, for a workhouse, away from the tramp is probably the most powerful and endearing tearjerker moment in the film--or of all film. In addition to Chaplin and Coogan, Edna Purviance is also quite effective in the dramatic side of the picture. Furthermore, Chaplin and cinematographer Roland Totheroh's photography had by now improved vastly over their work at Mutual, and Chaplin was already an eccentric perfectionist, but the musical score added to the 1971 release, composed by Chaplin, taken from Tchaikovsky, gives the emotive parts its most verve. Of the slapstick, one of my favourite scenes involves the tramp in fear of a bully. It's reminiscent of his Mutual short 'Easy Street' (1917), which is made especially clear when the bully bends a lamppost with one punch. There are many other great moments of humorous pantomime and farce in this film. Yet, 'The Kid' is much more than that, which makes it such a breakthrough; the slapstick fills the plot, and there is more of a developed plot here than in Chaplin's previous work. This was the beginning of the tramp as the sympathetic, pitiful hero, as well as clown, that's so recognizable and beloved to this day. Moreover, the dream sequence is an ingenious plot device; it adds dimensionally to the narrative and asserts its themes while delaying the inevitable conclusion of the outer narrative to poignant effect. It's also funny in a silly way. It's somewhat analogous to the outer reality story, although with much ambiguity. I wasn't always sure Chaplin was making any clear point, such as with the Christ image earlier in the film, but that seems unimportant; 'The Kid' affects the emotions and isn't aimed at engaging the mind. At six reels, with more sets and a developed plot, this film was already an expansion compared to Chaplin's previous films; the dream sequence satisfyingly expands the narrative depth, thus making 'The Kid' Chaplin's first complete feature.

The Marriage Circle

Ernst Lubitsch's first American comedy masterpiece, the film that kept him in the States. Reeling from the difficulties encountered on his first American film, "Rosita," Lubitsch was ready to return to his native Germany until Warner Brothers, looking for an identity other than Rin Tin Tin, offered the director a chance to make his own unique films. In "The Marriage Circle," Lubitsch's influential silent comedy effortlessly follows the love and lust, flirtations and phoniness among several upper-crust citizens of Vienna. In Lubitsch's deft hands, "The Marriage Circle" continues the tradition of manners comedy and shows the "touch" the director was famous for. Lubitsch knew that in an atmosphere of hushed whispers and discretion, a kiss can carry quite an erotic charge. To see "The Marriage Circle" in this glistening print derived from the original negative, with an appropriately lilting score by the Mont Alto Orchestra, is to fall in love with the movies--and Ernst Lubitsch--all over again.

To the Last Man

Oliver Twist (1922)

Jackie Coogan had made his name as the spunky waif in Chaplin's The Kid when he took on the role of Charles Dickens's plucky orphan hero in Oliver Twist. It's dream casting: wide-eyed Coogan is an innocent with a heart of gold dropped into a den of thieves, notably Lon Chaney's Fagin, a heartless conniver with long whiskers, a hook nose, rotten teeth and skeletal fingers. The entire production is peopled with perfect types--a rotund bulldog of a Mr. Brumble, a barrel-chested bully of a Bill Sykes, a ragged dandy of an Artful Dodger--but it rather misses the point of Dickens. "I know of two kinds of boys: good and bad," sniffs one high-society gentleman, and sure enough, director Frank Lloyd gives us heroes and villains without the energetic, colorful portrayals of the Dodger (who has little dramatic presence) and Fagin that enrich later versions of the novel. The entire novel is packed into 74 breakneck minutes, but the lavish production is richly atmospheric and beautiful to look at, and Coogan's cute, sprightly performance keeps the story bouncing along. The print is well worn and in places quite damaged, but it's presentable, nicely tinted, and accompanied by an organ score by John Muri.

This disc also includes Lon Chaney in The Light of Faith (an abridged version of Clarence Brown's The Light in the Dark). Chaney plays a thief who, inspired by the story of the Holy Grail, risks his life to rob a rich man of his ancient goblet in the hopes that it may save a sick girl. There's little room for dramatic resonance in such a digest-sized version, but Chaney shines as a reformed roughneck, and the lavish production is well preserved in this excellent restoration, which has been tinted and set to an organ score by Hank Troy. --Sean Axmaker

Lon Chaney portrays the frightful, despicable Fagin in this richly atmospheric screen adaptation of Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" (74 min.). Jackie Coogan (The Kid) stars as the titular irrepressible waif in 19th-century England, whose adventures lead him from undernourished orphan to undertaker's apprentice, from novice pickpocket to pampered youth. Faithful in spirit and letter to Dickens' immortal story, "Oliver Twist" is an exquisitely designed film, recreating with painterly care the firelit chambers, sepulchral basements and sordid slums that confine its menagerie of eccentric and pathetic personages. As an added bonus, this DVD includes the Lon Chaney short film, "The Light of Faith" (30 min.). Typical of the era's moral regeneration dramas, director Clarence Brown's visually stunning "The Light of Faith" features Chaney as a thief who finds himself in possession of the Holy Grail. Chaney's genuine interest in the plight of the lawless endowed his performances in these films with remarkable conviction and vibrancy.

The Love Goddesses

Shadows of the Orient

''Judge Avery's daughter Viola (Ester Ralston) is arrested in a police raid on Chinatown's most notorious gambling casino. Facing public disgrace and her father's anger, Viola romances immigration officer Bob Baxter (Regis Toomey) who provides an alibi for her. Baxter is drawn to Viola but also sees her as a source of information about the casino boss's white slavery ring.

As Baxter's attention becomes clouded with infatuation, Viola must keep the inquisitive detective at bay. Owning a debt of silence to the casino's owner, King Moss (Sidney Blackmer), Viola finds herself ensnared in a dark web of Western intrigue and Oriental crime. Growing feelings for Baxter drive Viola into danger and she is kidnapped as a pawn in Moss's elaborate underworld scheme.

Starring: Ester Ralston, Regis Toomey & Sidney Blackmer
Directed by: Burt Lynwood

DVD Details:

• Run Time: 67 minutes
• Number of Discs: 1
• Originally Released in 1937
• Black & White
• No region encoding; For global distribution.

Lonely Wives

Law of Vengence

The Marriage Circle [Region 2]